Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
- Claude Monet
Dad Suggests was created to share with others the many different things that we have loved sharing with our own children.
Our hope is that - by reading or visiting our children’s bookstore - you will find something special to enjoy with your own family.
- Ryan
These are the best questions to ask at parent-teacher conferences. Their teacher is a treasure trove of knowledge about your child. Come prepared with these questions so that your next meeting with your child’s teacher doesn’t turn into a boring recitation of missing assignments and letter grades.
These are the best picture books to read on the first day of school, whether your kids are starting kindergarten or 6th grade. Use them to remind your kids to believe in themselves, and to be kind and stand up to bullies. And use them to remind your kids what’s really important in life.
Pyramid of Pengqueen is a family board game from Brain Games with a great story and very creative gameplay. Take turns playing as an evil mummy stumbling around trying to catch everyone - or playing as an adventurer trying to escape the cursed pyramid with their life.
The KinderGuides series from Moppet Books is a fantastic way to introduce your children to great classic literature through picture books. Books like Romeo and Juliet and Moby Dick are abridged for a younger audience and beautifully illustrated to make them the perfect introduction to these great stories.
These are the best family board games for celebrating summertime. Play these family games as you enjoy a classic-themed summer full of lemonade, camping under the stars, catching fireflies, and sitting by the pool.
Comic Quests is a series of graphic novels that you can actually play. Become a character in the story and keep track of your items and stats with your own character sheet. Solve riddles, fight enemies, and make many choices during your adventures. Reading and playing with our son is a pure joy.
Sharing quality time with the entire family is the ultimate goal of family game night. And that means you have to get your toddler on board as soon as possible too. The social and cognitive benefits of board games are too numerous to put it off any longer than you have to. Discover how to successfully involve your toddler in your next family game night.
Whoowasit? from Ravensburger is the perfect family board game for adding a little magic to family game night. This family game has a certain trick up its sleeve that makes it one of the most imaginative and engaging games in our collection.
Cori Doerrfeld’s Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! is a poignant lesson about the Yin and Yang in life. Every goodbye leads to a hello. It’s a beautiful book, and very useful for teaching your kids about how to deal with change and keep a positive mindset about adversity in life.
Teach your kids to love who they are. This book list contains the very best picture books for conveying this message to your kids - celebrate being yourself. Do what you love. Follow your passions. Be proud of who you are.
Immersion is one of the best ways to learn a foreign language. If the best advice for building your child’s vocabulary and setting them up for success is reading to them, why would it be any different with another language? Start exposing your kids to foreign languages through picture books.
These are the best cooperative board games for 3-year-olds. Our 3-year-old is very opinionated about the games she loves and grabs from the shelf to play with us. Not only is it an immense pleasure to see her excited about choosing the games we play, but the rest of us legitimately have fun with them too.
Society is doing a very good job making children believe they’re worthless if they aren’t good at tests. I recently discovered the absolute perfect way to teach children otherwise - a picture book called All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell. You simply must read this one with your kids.
25 years after first being published, 13 Dead End Drive has been resurrected for a new generation. This family board game is full of working booby traps and plenty of treachery - and it’s great at sparking the imagination. Who will inherit Aunt Agatha’s vast fortune? And, more importantly, who will survive the night?
Dad jokes are the antidote we all need to protect us from the dangers of being too cool for school. After years and years of being exposed to the embarrassment of dad humor, our kids will fear nothing. The best gift we can give them is a role model who is unafraid to be himself. Bring on the groans!
The great thing about a family camping trip is that everyone is guaranteed to be unplugged and focused on enjoying each other’s company. Next time you head to the woods, make sure to try these fantastic family board games at your campsite. They’re sure to set the right atmosphere.
Dads are important role models for children to look up to. They can teach their kids what’s really important - and build up their self esteem and their sense of wonder. In return, kids teach their dads the meaning of life in ways they could never have imagined. The book on this list do a remarkable job of capturing that special relationship.
As far as I’m concerned, books that tackle topics like empathy and friendship are tackling meaning of life stuff. They’re trying to give kids the tools to build meaningful relationships and spend their days on Earth in a worthwhile fashion. A Sick Day for Amos McGee provides these lessons better than any other picture book we have.
